On September 3, 1838, abolitionist, journalist, author, and human rights advocate Frederick Douglass made his dramatic escape from slavery—traveling north by train and boat—from Baltimore, through Delaware, to Philadelphia. That same night, he took a train to New York, where he arrived the following morning.

Born into slavery on a plantation in Tuckahoe, Maryland, circa 1817, he was the son of a black mother and an unidentified white father. He never knew the date of his birth, but celebrated his birthday on February 14 in memory of his mother, who had brought him a heart-shaped cake on the night that he last saw her.

Only a small boy when his mother died, Douglass, born Frederick Bailey, lived with his grandmother in the slave quarters until he was eight years old, when he was "hired out" and sent to work in the home of Hugh Auld. While working for the Auld family in Baltimore, Frederick began to acquire a formal education. Mrs. Auld broke Maryland state law in order to teach the young boy to read, and Frederick later tried to learn all he could from schoolboys he met on the streets of Baltimore.

After an earlier unsuccessful attempt, Frederick escaped from slavery in 1838 by posing as a free sailor wearing a red shirt, a tarpaulin hat, and a black scarf tied loosely around his neck. He boarded a train bound for Philadelphia.

On sped the train, and I was well on my way…when the conductor came into the negro car to collect tickets and examine the papers of his black passengers. This was a critical moment in the drama.

Overjoyed at being free when he reached New York City, Frederick immediately had to face feelings of loneliness and fear as a stranger in a strange land. Fortunately, he was soon given assistance by free black abolitionist and activist David Ruggles.

Two weeks after reaching a free state, Douglass married Anna Murray, a free black woman whom he had met in Baltimore. He settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where his experience as a ship caulker enabled him to find work on the docks. In New Bedford, Frederick gave a friend the privilege of choosing for him a new name, since he might be sought under the old name as a runaway:

I gave Mr. Johnson the privilege of choosing me a name, but told him he must not take from me the name of "Frederick." I must hold on to that, to preserve a sense of my identity. Mr. Johnson had just been reading the Lady of the Lake, and at once suggested that my name be "Douglass."

With proceeds from the Narrative and the aid of money and a press provided by British philanthropists, Frederick Douglass and Martin Delany began in 1847 to edit and publish a newspaper, The North Star, based in Rochester, New York.

Abolish slavery in all its forms and aspects, advocate universal emancipation, exalt the standard of public morality, and promote the moral and intellectual improvement of the colored people, and hasten the day of freedom to the Three Millions of our enslaved fellow countrymen.

The paper also advanced women's rights, a cause that Douglass had championed since his participation in the first women's rights convention of 1848 at Seneca Falls, where he spoke out eloquently in support of the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments. Douglass was one of the original signers of this manifesto of women's rights, drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Charles wrote this letter from Camp Meigs in Readville, Massachusetts. The younger Douglass relates an encounter with a pugilistic Irishman, who began heckling him while he was rejoicing over "the news that Meade had whipped the rebels [at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania]." Before a fight could begin, a policeman led the Irishman away.

During the Civil War, Douglass advised President Lincoln, urging him to allow the enlistment of African-American soldiers and to frame the conflict as an assault on slavery. He was responsible for recruiting African Americans to fight for the Union, and his own two sons, Charles and Lewis, enlisted in the 54th Massachusetts Regiment.

After the war, Douglass held several appointed government positions, including U.S. marshal of D.C. He continued to fight for the civil rights of African Americans and women. He was U.S. minister and general consul to Haiti from 1889-91.

"The Fugitive's Song,"
Ephraim W. Bouvé, lithographer,
1845.Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
A sheet music cover illustrated with a romanticized portrait of Frederick Douglass' escape. In this fictionalized version, Douglass flees barefoot from two mounted pursuers who appear across the river behind him with their pack of dogs. Ahead, to the right, a signpost points toward New England.

The cover's text states that the song was "composed and respectfully dedicated, in token of confident esteem to Frederick Douglass…for his fearless advocacy, signal ability and wonderful success in behalf of His Brothers in Bonds…and to the Fugitives From Slavery…by their friend Jesse Hutchinson, Jr."

Louis H. Sullivan

Is there anything that does not reside in function and form? Not that I have been able to discover.

Architect and writer Louis Henri Sullivan was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on September 3, 1856. Sullivan spent much of his youth on his grandparents' small farm. At age sixteen, he entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study architecture. A pioneer in the design of skyscrapers, Sullivan not only contributed to Chicago's role as a center of architectural innovation, but inspired generations of architects with his core philosophy that "form ever follows function." Among them was Prairie School icon Frank Lloyd Wright, for whom Sullivan served as a mentor.

Having worked briefly as a draftsman in Philadelphia, in 1873 Sullivan moved to Chicago, then in the midst of a building boom following the great Chicago Fire of 1871. After a stint in the office of William Le Baron Jenney and a study trip to Europe, Sullivan first worked for and then joined in partnership with Dankmar Adler, a well-connected architect and engineer.

During the next fourteen years, the firm of Adler and Sullivan produced over 100 landmark buildings, including public and commercial projects as well as private residences. Their first large-scale commission, the multi-use Auditorium Building (1886-90), became one of their most widely renowned efforts. As described in Rand, McNally & Company's 1893 Guide to Chicago,

This celebrated and magnificent structure, the chief architectural spectacle in Chicago…covers 1 ½ acres, and the height of the main building is 145 feet, with 10 stories and a basement. The spacious tower, however, is 17 or more stories in height, and measures 270 feet from the ground. The walls are of granite and Bedford stone to the top, and the interior is of steel, terra cotta, and other non-combustible materials. A hotel (to which the Extension belongs), the largest theater in the world, a recital hall, 4 stores, and 136 offices go to make up the building…There are 13 passenger elevators, and 3 entrances to as many parts of the structure. It is estimated that in the mosaics of this great fabric are 50,000,000 pieces of marble, all placed by hand…The Republican National Convention of June, 1888, was held in the theater, and the finished building was dedicated by President Harrison during the holidays of 1889-90. Cost, $3,200,000.2

One of Sullivan's great contributions came in articulating the form of the developing skyscraper building type. As pioneered by Jenney with his Home Insurance Building, skyscrapers were constructed using steel frameworks faced with lightweight curtain walls, rather than traditional load-bearing masonry. This new technique (combined with elevators for upper-floor access) allowed buildings to grow taller while incorporating more open space and larger windows on each floor.

Sullivan's striking designs were an acknowledgment of verticality. In an article titled "The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered"3, he explained the importance of matching each part of a building's exterior to its function:

The lowest stories should articulate a building's entrance, attracting the eye and drawing the visitor in; the upper tiers of identical office floors should all look alike because they are alike; the cornice and roofline should broadly proclaim that the building's great height has reached its full extent.

Sullivan's other great achievement was the rich ornamental work that adorned many of his buildings. Whether in stone, brick, terra cotta, plaster, brass, cast iron, wood, or paint, his lushly intertwining embellishments—based in nature or in the designs of cultures from around the world—were integral to the success of his overall designs.

Sullivan was a prolific writer throughout his life. In addition to Kindergarten Chats, first published serially in Interstate Architect & Builder in 1901-02 and later revised, he published numerous articles and drafted a book about architecture, nature, and democracy. In his memoir, Autobiography of an Idea (also serialized and then printed as a whole in 1924, the last year of his life) Sullivan expressed his architectural philosophy as it had developed across a lifetime of practice.

To see more images of buildings designed by Sullivan, and by the firm Adler and Sullivan, search across the American Memory collections of photographs and prints as well as the Library's Prints & Photographs Online Catalog on those names. Search on the names of specific buildings, such as Auditorium Building or Chicago Stock Exchange, for even more examples.